Halfway To Somewhere

When asked about playing at the Twins' new stadium, Joe Girardi sounded hopeful about the weather:

...I do prefer outdoor baseball. Maybe we’re catching it at the right time. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees in Minnesota this week. They claim it’s only one degree colder than Chicago on average. And it seems the weather’s been really good up there this year.

Instead of the "right time" (i.e. a balmy evening like the one we had on the East Coast), the Yanks were part of the first rain delay in almost 30 years in Minnesota, dating back to September 26th, 1981, back at the old Metropolitan Stadium. Last night, it started raining with a purpose sometime around the second inning and only got worse from there.

Picking up where they left off against the Mets, the Yankees offense was painful to watch in the five innings of play that were completed before the game was suspended. Mark Teixeira erased a single by Brett Garnder by grounding into a double play in the first inning and Robinson Cano did the same thing to a base hit by A-Rod in the second.

When the lineup came around again in the fourth, Derek Jeter led off with a single and Brett Gardner worked a walk, setting the table for the middle of the order. However, Teixeira popped it up, A-Rod struck out swinging and Cano flied out to center without so much as moving the lead runner to third. Had the Yanks been able to sneak one across there and hold the lead, the game might have already been final.

A.J. Burnett had the Twins feeling the same way as he stranded two baserunners in each of the first two innings. He found his groove from there, however, retiring nine straight until Denard Span dropped a bunt single on him with two outs in the fifth. Span stole second but Orlando Hudson struck out swinging to end the inning and the game, for the time being.

Burnett whiffed five and allowed three hits and a walk during his five scoreless frames. With the game still knotted up at zero, he has a chance to get the win if the Yanks can score some runs in the sixth inning and hold the lead. One step at a time though, as any win will do just fine.

Play will resume today at 5:05 Eastern and they'll finish the game before the teams play their regularly scheduled tilt. One and a half header! Girardi didn't announce who would be pitching when the game begins again but it will likely be Boone Logan or Damaso Marte since lefties Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are due up in the bottom of the sixth and Joe Girardi will feel the need to start burning through relievers as soon as possible since there will be at least 13 innings to plat tomorrow. Mark it down.

Wait Until Tomorrow

Okay, by now you already know that tonight's game was postponed due to rain and there is a doubleheader scheduled for tomorrow. Sorry for the delayed reaction but both Matt and I were far, far away from our computers when the news broke.

We've pulled down the preview that was up earlier so we can polish it up and use it again for tomorrow's early game and we'll have plenty of news and notes for you first thing in the morning. Until then...

I think we better wait 'til tomorrow,
Got to make sure it's right,
So, until tomorrow, goodnight.

Game 29 Recap

Hi Everyone. I am Jason from The Heartland writing a guest wrap for yesterday's 14-3 thrashing in Fenway. My apologies for the late post, but I had a heck of a time trying to write this last night, between Blogger's not saving my lengthy post, then not allowing me to log in when I already was logged in. Very frustrating. Anyhoo, thanks to Jay and Matt for the chance to pinch-hit. I have a little different style of game recaps than the Fack Youk authors, brought from my time formerly blogging at Heartland Pinstripes. Away we go with a wrap on a very long yet thoroughly enjoyable game.

The Yanks had an early opportunity to score runs, putting Jeter and Brett the Jet aboard in the first with infield singles and no out. Yet Pedroia made a wise move on Gardner's bunt single made the difference between a run and the eventual DP, for he backed up first on Martinez's poor throw. This kept Jeter and Gardner at first and second and, more importantly, the DP in order instead of giving them second and third, for Teixeira's grounder to second, which would have otherwise plated Jeter from third, instead resulted in a 4-6-3 DP. CC pitched out of initial trouble in the second for, after Youkilis and Lowell singled to open the inning, The Big Guy whiffed Drew on a nasty 2-2 slider, then induced Beltre to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 DP.

The Yanks got two in the third when Pena led off with a double, Jeter walked, Gardner bunted them over, Teixeira singled in Pena, and A-Rod singled in The Captain before Cano's own inning-ending DP pruned what portended to be a big rally. The Big Guy fanned Hall with a slider before allowing Darnell McDonald to homer over the monster on what appeared to me to be an unusually long home run trot, 2-1. After retiring Scutaro, C.C. then did the right thing, reared back, and brought his very best 98-mph fastball and spotted it right on Pedroia's left ass cheek, to me unquestionably in response for Beckett's wildness the night before. Initially, it cost the Yanks, for it extended the inning and Martinez subsequently homered to briefly give Boston a 3-2 lead. Yet I had absolutely no problem whatsoever with The Big Guy's action. Good.

The Yanks tied it in the top of the fourth when Swish walked and Beltre, as part of a miserable day in the field, threw away what should have been a 5-4-3 DP on Winn's grounder, giving them second and third. Frankie C. laced a single, but Winn was thrown out at home after Swish scored, with Frankie C. The RBI Machine taking second. Although he went to third on a wild pitch with one out, neither Pena nor Jeter plated him. Not to worry; the floodgate of runs blew wide open soon enough.

After C.C. worked a quick 1-2-3 fourth, including getting Hall looking on a vicious 97-mph heater, the Yanks commenced the ass whipping in the fifth. Teixeira ripped a one-out homer way deep in right center, 4-3 Yanks. A-Rod walked, Cano laced a single to center, Swish was caught looking on a slider that painted the outside black, Winn walked the bases loaded, and again, Frankie C. smoked a single to center to plate both A-Rod and Cano, with Winn, to me, unnecessarily getting caught in a rundown between second and third to allow Cano to score. I was initially bothered because it seemed that Cano would have no problem scoring, and Winn's self-sacrifice ended a good rally. Yet it ultimately didn't hurt, for C.C. and the bullpen allowed nothing more the rest of the way.

Their work, however, had to wait until after a rain delay of just over an hour, which occurred with Martinez facing a 2-2 count and two outs. This too irked me, for it had just begun to rain--and it started to rain hard--when I saw McClelland's hands go up to halt the action. I had hoped he would at least give C.C. the chance to get Martinez and therefore have a chance at the decision, but it seemed McClelland wanted an early crack at the post-game buffet. If nothing else, this gave me a chance to rip into the delicious roast turkey and stuffing we enjoyed last night. When the game resumed, Aceves entered and finished off Martinez. After Aceves exited with a stiff back and Logan came on, whiffing Hermida on a nasty slider, the Yankees finished off Boston with eight late runs to chase most of the "Fenway faithful" before a laughingly lackluster version of "Sweet Caroline."

Teixeira ripped a homer around Pesky's Pole to begin the seventh, 7-3 Yanks. A-Rod then singled and stole second and, after Cano whiffed, Swish singled to right, 8-3 Yanks. The rout was on in full force in the eighth with a magnificent, leave-no-doubt two-out rally. Gardner singled with one out and, after Teixeira was robbed of a hit on a nice diving grab by McDonald, A-Rod and Cano walked before Bard relieved Schoenweis and promptly allowed a single to Swish that plated Gardner and A-Rod, 10-3 Yanks. After Winn walked to re-load the bases, The RBI Machine that is Francisco Cervelli smoked yet another RBI single to center to sore Cano and Swish, 12-3 Yankees. On a personal note, even though he's well regarded and throws 100 mph, I just am not that impressed by Daniel Bard. The Yanks appear completely unfazed by him and, as they worked him over last night, all I could think of was JD and Teixeira hitting back-to-back homers off him last August 9th to cap the great four-game sweep in the Bronx. Sorry, kid. Try again next time.

With outfielder Jonathan Van Every in for the 9th to rest the rest of the beleaguered Boston bullpen, Jeter ripped a double to center and Teixeira absolutely destroyed a pitch off the middle of a light tower above the monster that was destined for Lansdowne, capping the scoring at a football-like 14-3.

What a job Frankie C. has done --5 RBI yesterday, batting .429. Three out of every seven at-bats Cervelli has had thus far this season have been hits. Plus, the guy has 12 RBI in just 42 at-bats; amazing job to let the Yanks not miss a beat as Jorge continues to rest. Teixeira broke out in a massive way, homering thrice and also driving in five to finally breach the Mendoza line. Jeter and Brett the Jet were each 2-5 and, combined with A-Rod's 2-2, three-walk day, the 1-4 spots (including Kevin Russo, who subbed in for A-Rod late) combined to go 10-19 with 9 runs and 6 RBI. Swish was 2-4 with 3 RBI, giving him 23 for the year to lead the team, and a .298 average. Swish to a certain degree has been overlooked, for the second straight year getting off to a strong start if not outright carrying the offense as he did last April. He's batted in several spots in the order--second, clean-up, sixth, seventh, and eighth--has played a good right field, and avoided streaky play with consistent productivity. Thank you again, Kenny Williams, for taking that steaming pile Wilson Betemit in exchange for Swish. Thank you too, Ozzie Guillen, for being an asshead and inspiring Swish to exact revenge on you.

C.C. had one rocky inning in an otherwise good start, failing to get the decision due to the rain delay and Girardi's understandable unwillingness to send him back out afterward. The bullpen allowed no runs in 4 1/3 innings of relief, with even Robertson not allowing any despite surrendering two singles.

Although Girardi said he wouldn't use him as his regular DH in Johnson's absence, I advocate Cervelli catching more often to allow Jorge to DH. Cervelli obviously does a strong job behind the dish and, with his hot bat, allowing him to keep the bottom of the lineup strong as Jorge returns should let the offense click even better.

With Tampa losing to the A's, the Yanks pulled within a half-game of first with their sixth consecutive win. Outscoring Boston 24-6 thus far this series, the Yanks go for the sweep tonight, with Burnett (4-0, 1.99 ERA) facing Lester (2-2, 3.93 ERA) on ESPN.

Despite a slew of injuries, the Yankees are hitting their stride, going 21-8 out of the gate backed by strong pitching (second-best team and starters' ERA in the AL) and, despite Teixeira, Johnson, and to a degree A-Rod's struggles, an offense starting to erupt. 24 runs the last two games has vaulted the offense to the top of the AL in runs with 175 (6.03/game). Not too shabby for the 2-3-4 spots starting more slowly than we might like.

Get the sweep tonight, Yankees. Happy Mother's Day to all the great moms out there!

Game 29 Win Expectancy Chart

Game 10 Recap

[WPA data via FanGraphs, picture via Yahoo!]

1. The only trouble CC Sabathia had came in the first inning, and even then, the Rangers were lucky to get a run across. Michael Young bounced one up the middle that Derek Jeter, ranging to his left, knocked down but couldn't quite get a hold of. Up next, Josh Hamilton looped a wind-aided double into the left field corner that Marcus Thames pulled up short of, putting runners on the corners for Vlad Guerrero. Vlad lifted an 0-2 pitch off the end of the bat to center field and Curtis Granderson made a strong throw to the plate, but Michael Young was safe by a couple of seconds. 1-0 Rangers.

2. The Yankees got to C.J. Wilson in the first inning as well. True to their respective natures, Derek Jeter led off the game with an opposite field single and Nick Johnson worked a walk. Johnson was erased on a double play by Mark Teixeira but Jeter moved to third and scored on a pased ball off of Talyor Teagarden's glove with A-Rod at the plate, tying the game at 1.

3. As the rain began to pick up in the 4th inning, the Yanks loaded the bases on a HBP, single and a walk with no one out for Marcus Thames, but he struck out looking on a slider over the inside corner. Next up, Curtis Granderson slapped one sharply to first that was fielded by Chris Davis, who attempted to get Nick Swisher at second base, but his throw hit Swish in the back, ricocheted into the outfield and allowed an additional run to score. Francisco Cervelli then hit a bloop single to shallow left to put the Yanks ahead 4-1.

4. The mound started to get sloppy in the 6th inning. CC Sabathia lost his footing while delivering a pitch and then plunked Julio Borbon but then retired the side in order.

In the bottom half of the inning, Marcus Thames singled and was replaced by Brett Gardner, who stole second. With two outs, Cervelli beat out a ground ball to shortstop, passing the baton to Jeter. The Captain bounced an RBI infield single just out of the reach of Wilson to put the Yanks up 5-1.

The grounds crew attempted to tame the soaked field before the 7th inning but were forced to declare a rain delay before calling the game all together about an hour later.

IFs, ANDs & BUTs

• The ball that Marcus Thames couldn't get to in the first fell within 5 or 10 feet of him and he looked lead-footed in pursuit of it. Mike from RAB thought it wouldn't have mattered if Brett Garnder was in there but watching the replay makes me think that Brett would have at least had a chance.
  
  
• Thames continues to hit, though, going 2-3 last night and bringing him up to 5-10 on the season.

• Brett Gardner's pinch running appearance was highly amusing. Curtis Granderson and C.J. Wilson engaged in an 11 pitch at bat and Gardner running on four of those pitches, only to have Granderson foul them back. The Rangers pitched out twice in a row to begin Cervelli's AB, and guessed right on the second one as Gardner was going, but still couldn't catch him.
  
  
• Sabathia was on another level last night. He struck out nine, walked none and allowed only three hits. As detailed above, the Rangers were lucky to patch together a run in the first and CC responded by striking out the next 6 batters he faced. Only 15 of the 73 pitches (20%) he threw were balls, he tossed 20 first pitch strikes, got to 0-2 twelve times and never had a 3 ball count. If anything, he got sort of gypped out of a chance at a more dominant start considering his pitch count and the way he was throwing through the 6 inning, but I'm sure he'll take the guaranteed rain-shortened win.
  
  
• We should probably reevaluate the notion that Sabathia can't pitch in cold weather after his performance last night. It was in the 40's and rainy and he looked a good as he ever has - probably even better than his last time out.
  
  
• Nick Johnson got caught stealing to end the third (probably on a missed hit and run) but replays showed he was safe. The throw beat him but he did some sort of a twisting scissor slide and touched the bag with his left leg before the tag was applied to his right.
  
  
• Mark Teixiera's futility was not diminished by the abbreviated game as he managed to make 4 outs in 3 at bats thanks to the double play in the first inning. Seriously, he should like, starting hitting pretty soon.
  

Game 2 of the series starts at 1:05 today, weather permitting and all that. We'll be back with the preview sometime before then.

Worth The Wait

By the time the players and fans had sat out the 2:43 minute rain delay last night, they could have watched a replay of Mark Buherle's perfect game in Chicago and still had 40 minutes to spare. It was almost 10:00PM at gametime, a brisk 66 degrees and windy with a slight drizzle still falling down. The weather system that had caused the delay had moved off the coast, leaving only scattered pockets of light rain behind.

Early on, Vin Mazzaro seemed poised to out-pitch CC Sabathia in front of a huge cheering section in the upper deck that was a mix of #54 Mazzaro jerseys, Oakland hoodies and Yankees logos.

He blazed through the first three innings, holding the Yanks scoreless and striking out six in the process, all the while be staked to a 3-0 lead. The runs came on a sac fly by Jack Cust and a single by Bobby Crosby in the second and a single by his battery mate Kurt Suzuki in the top of the 4th.

However, not all went according to plan for the 22 year old righty from Rutherford. Mark Teixeira ripped a two run homer to right after being green-lighted on a 3-0 pitch in the 4th to get the Yanks off the schneid. A-Rod followed that with a walk, stole second and was rewarded for his timely thievery by being promptly doubled in by Jorge Posada. Eric Hinkse continued his Swisherific start as a Yankee by adding a two out single and putting the Yanks ahead for good.

Two more runs came to the plate against Mazzaro in the 5th inning, bringing his total to six and sending him to the showers. He pitched well in the early going, but once the Yanks woke up from their rain delay slumber, he couldn't hold on. The win last night brought the Bombers' record against rookie starters this year to 18-7, which is the best in the AL and second only to the Braves (10-4) in the Majors, according to the YES broadcast last night. You think we can put that myth to rest for a while?

Sabathia settled down after his rough 2nd and 4th innings and held the A's to three runs though seven. He gave up 9 hits but didn't walk a batter while striking out 4. Phil Hughes came on for the 8th inning and sat the A's down 1-2-3. To be honest, I thought Joe Girardi would probably bring on Rivera in the 9th to close it out but to my surprise (and delight) he gave the new found bullpen stud a shot at his first major league save. Hughes sat them down in order in the 9th and seized the opportunity.

The Yanks are making it look easy right now. This was their largest margin of victory since the All-Star Break, a whopping three runs, and they did it in comeback fashion. In those 7 games, the pitching staff has given up only 17 runs (2.4/game) while the offense has scored 29 (4.1 per). They haven't blown their opponents out of the water, but they've found ways to win close games, which might be even more satisfying. This victory, coupled with an off night for the Sox stretches their lead in the AL East to 2.5 games.

Game 95: Got To Get Better In A Little While

This will be CC Sabathia's second start against the A's wearing Pinstripes, and the last one wasn't particularly pretty. It took place on April 22nd and was a sloppy back and forth affair that took 14 innings and nearly 5 hours to complete. CC went 6 2/3 innings but allowed 7 runs (6 earned) and only struck out two. His opponent that day was Brett Anderson, a rookie from Midland, Texas making his first start against the Yanks. The Yanks got to Anderson as well (5ER in 5 2/3IP), but neither factored into the decision for obvious reasons.

Tonight, another rookie will make his debut against the Yankees in the Bronx, although this one might be a little more familiar with the area. Vin Mazzaro was born in Hackensack and attended Rutherford High School from which he was drafted by Oakland in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft. He started out in low A-Ball in 2006 with less than impressive results. He started 24 games for the Kane County Cougars, averaged fewer than 5 innings per appearance and had an ERA of 5.05. He was promoted in 2007 anyway to High A Ball in Stockon, CA where he produced similar results: a 5.35 ERA and a 1.62 K/BB ratio.

He received another promotion in 2008 (to AA) and took a gigantic leap forward in his age 21 season. Scouts credit his improvement to increases in velocity and swapping a nasty slider for what had been a relatively ineffective curveball. He was promoted to AAA before the conclusion of the year but struggled there, posting an ERA of 6.15 over 33 2/3 innings. His 2009 season began in AAA but picked up where he left off in AA performance-wise, compiling a 2.38 ERA in 9 starts and one relief appearance. He was called up to the Major League club in late May this year, and hit the ground running. He didn't allow a run over his first two starts, totalling 13 2/3 innings, but his ERA has risen steadily ever since. It's now at 4.09 following 5 consective losing outings and his record sits at 2-6.

Sabathia, on the other hand, has been alternating gems and clunkers over his past 5 starts, going 3-2. He's given up only 2 runs in the 1st, 3rd & 5th of those outings while surrendering 11 in the 2nd and 4th. He came back from the All-Star break on a high note with 7 shutout innings against the Tigers and looks to keep that momentum going tonight. As was the case in the Detroit game, Jorge Posada will do the catching.

It might be a little while before the game starts up tonight as rain is already falling on the NYC area. It looks like it's going to pass, but not for a while. Ross from New Stadium Insider's personal Weather connection tells us that the game probably won't start until about 8:30. Check back with him for more updates or stop by Yankees Weather on Twitter.

Hang in there, this rain won't last forever.

Still one thing that you can do;
Fall down on your knees and pray.

It's got to get better in a little while...

What A Weekend

Good morning Fackers. Well, we have another weekend in the books, and I don't know about you, but we sure enjoyed ourselves. Jay was participating in another golf tournament. I had a helluva a cookout at my place Saturday, starting just after I watched the Yanks take game two of the series from the Tigers. I now have enough empties on my porch to get more than $10 in bottle deposit refunds. You could say it was a pretty fun Saturday.

Sandwiched around the cook/drinkout, I attended both the Friday and Sunday games. The biblical downpour on Friday night was something else. In the past three years I've sat through more rain delays than I can even remember. It seems as if it rains every other time I go to the Bronx. But none of them compare to Friday. We stayed at our seats in the very last section of the left field terrace until the official rain delay was called. And we got under cover just in time to avoid the worst of it.

I don't know how much footage YES showed of the rain, but it was incredible. The upper deck concourse has down spouts coming down from the roof. They were running like fire hydrants. There was a full pond back around the home plate area of the concourse. Thankfully, that would be the last inclement weather of the weekend, and in some ways, the torrential downpours were preferable to the oppressive humidity that preceded it.


More impressive than the rain was the performance from Phil Hughes. I still have some serious concerns about how he's being deployed. But watching him record all six outs via K on Friday, and 8 of 9 total on the weekend is very impressive.

With the possible exception of Opening Day, Old Timers' Day is my favorite day of the season, so it was very cool to be in attendance with my brother, father, and uncle on Sunday. I love a good pitchers' duel, and Sunday certainly was one of those. I'm not ready to say all is well with Joba based on just one start, but Sunday was a leap in the right direction.

Last week started with the end of an ugly three game sweep at the hands of the Angels. With no baseball for the next four days, there was much talk of the Yanks' troubles against the division leading Angels (2-4) and Red Sox (0-8). But baseball is a funny game. Just as the Yanks found a way to lose all three games in Anaheim, all games that they led at one point, they found a way to win all three games against Detroit this weekend, all games that they trailed at some point. The sweep ran the Yankees record against the division leading Tigers to 5-1. It's almost as if the baseball gods put things back to equilibrium as soon as possible. I'm sure Detroit is happy they won't be seeing Joba, Hughes, or Mo again this regular season.

In all, a great weekend. An exciting three game sweep of the division leading Tigers, featuring two classic pitchers' duels. That coupled with two Sox losses pulled the Yanks back to within a game of first. The tenth anniversary of David Cone's perfect game, the annual Old Timers' Day celebration, great weather, etc. It all adds up to make this Monday morning look a little less daunting than most.

Back with more later.

Back At It

When play resumed in the bottom of the 8th inning, Yankee Stadium couldn't have held more than 5,000 fans. Whittled down from the original 46,197, the 57 minute rain delay drove home the all but the most hearty Pinstripe supporters.

There were about a dozen people in each of the bleacher sections, and if you buy into the seating-based Yankee fan stereotypes, one would have to assume that many of them were sitting in better seats when Derek Jeter led off the inning with a sharp single to center. At that point, the Yankees seemed to be in control of the game, but for the first six and a half innings, that did not appear to be the case.

Despite the gloomy, overcast conditions at gametime, the weather held out for quite a while. The rain started falling in the sixth inning, and at that time the Yankees were trailing, as they had been for nearly the entire game.

To lead off the game, Curtis Granderson took two pitches before ripping a double to right off of A.J. Burnett. He came around to score two batters later (after being advanced to third), on a Miguel Cabrera groundout. The Yanks tied it up on a Hideki Matsui single in the bottom half of the inning but the Tigers added another picket to their fence in the second.

Granderson again proved lethal in the leadoff role to start the fifth inning, sending a solo shot to right center field to bring the score to 3-1. It might have stayed there if Josh Anderson hadn't let a routine single by Mark Teixeira bounce through the wickets and up against the wall, allowing Johnny Damon to score easily. It wasn't the first costly error he's committed against the Yanks this year.

For the second time in a row, A.J. Burnett wasn't sharp. However, he found a way to work around a 11 baserunners and a throwing error (his own) and keep the game competitive. He allowed 5 BBs to just 1K, and spent 104 pitches in the process of getting through 6 innings. But he never allowed more than one run in a frame and left the game with the Yanks still in striking distance at 3-2.

After Phil Hughes worked a scoreless half of the seventh inning, the Yanks jumped on Joel Zumaya in the form or a Derek Jeter single and a two bagger courtesy of Johnny Damon. Still with no one out, Mark Teixeira worked the count to 3-0, took a strike and then blasted a three run shot to RF to shift the balance of the game permanently.

Hughes came back on for the 8th and rung up 3 more K's, bringing his total to 6 for the two innings he pitched. His line included 3 hits, a balk and 40 pitches, but Phil was dominant, mixing a fastball that touched 97 with a cutter and a curve.

After the rain delay and the top half of the 9th, the Honorable Mariano Rivera brought the proceedings to a close by getting former Yankee Marcus Thames to pop out to Teix in front of the pitcher's mound.

It was the 8th time in a row that the Yankees had come out of the All-Star break with a victory, and their third win in four games against the Tigers; seemingly the only first place team they can handle this year. They'll be back at it tomorrow at 1:05 with CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander squaring off in a battle of aces.

[Photos via ESPN/AP-Bill Kostroun]

Yet Another Reason Why Interleague Play Sucks

Tonight the Yankees kick off a nine game swing through National League parks, meaning their pitchers will have to bat. And run. Which, as we learned last year, could be a disastrous proposition.

Regardless of where you stand on whether the DH belongs in the game, it presents one of the biggest problems with interleague play. It isn't particularly fair to have NL clubs, whose rosters aren't constructed with a DH in mind, enter an AL park and play with a DH. And it certainly isn't fair to have an AL team enter an NL park and have their pitchers bat, when many of them haven't done so regularly since high school.

Yesterday, Mother Nature helped teach us another lesson as to why interleague play sucks. Sure, a rainout during the Subway Series leads to the novelty split stadium doubleheader. But in any other case, as detailed earlier, a rainout wreaks havoc. Because of the gimmickry of interleague play, teams only see each other once. So an interleague rainout can create serious problems and is thus avoided at all costs. That's why MLB forces fans to sit through five hour rain delays on days like yesterday. At least the Yankees had the good sense to reward yesterday's ticket holders with freebie tickets. All else being equal, there was no way the Yankees should have played yesterday. Of course, you could make the argument that given their performance, the Yankees really didn't play yesterday.

This was a lesson I learned the hard way three years ago. After forking over a small fortune to take my father and brothers to Old Timers' Day against the Marlins, we spent hours sitting in the rain. The tarp stayed on the field as the Old Timers were introduced. There was no Old Timers' game, which surely prevented a few broken hips.

After a delay, the game finally started. After an inning plus of baseball, the tarp was called for again. An interminable delay ensued before the game was finally called. Because it was an interleague series, the game was rescheduled as the back end of a day-night doubleheader the following day.

I was one of 6,809 who showed up for the make-up game. Our seats were in the tier boxes along the rightfield line. With the Stadium being virtually empty, after the top of the first we chose to move directly behind the plate for a better view. As the second batter in the bottom of the first, Derek Jeter lined a foul ball exactly where we had just been sitting. There wasn't a soul within four sections of it, but from our new location we had no chance of getting to it before the other seventy-five people in the upper deck.

A couple innings later, the Yankees closed the upper deck, just as they did yesterday. We moved down to the main level. After choosing our new seats, I noticed that there were some cameras in the seats directly in front of us. While we were seated much closer than we had been, we still weren't close enough to be near any of the TV cameras.

After about a half inning, I realized we were seated behind the cast of YES' Ultimate Road Trip, the since-cancelled reality show that had a group of Yankee fans attend every game of the season. That season, one of the girls on the show was pretty cute, so I was satisfied with our new location.

A few innings later, Stadium staffers showed up to move the Road Trippers down to field boxes. I made some smart-ass remark about how we couldn't get upgraded since we didn't have a TV show. The cute one said something like "Oh, but we never get good seats". Yeah, but you get to go to every game for free; my heart really goes out to you.

That was about as exciting as it got that night. I managed to sneak into a couple shots when the episode aired. In the end, the Yankees and future G.M. tosser Shawn Chacon were shutout 5-0 by rookie pitcher Anibal Sanchez. The team played like they didn't care to be there. Sound familiar?

Fans Compensated For Soggy Thursday

Yesterday was a rare Thursday in the New York City area. There were two quality sporting events taking place during the day, one at Yankee Stadium and the other at Bethpage State Park Pond out on Long Island. A steady rain drowned the area, leaving both the Stadium and the course, as Stuart Appleby said, "Wetter then[sic] an otter's pocket."

Golf can typically be played in the rain so as long as there isn't any lightining, and the course doesn't become inundated with casual water. It typically has a slightly higher tolerance to precipitation than baseball does, but yesterday that was not the case. Play at Bethpage was suspended only 15 minutes after ESPN's TV coverage of the event began. The USGA thought they saw a window where play could resume around 1:30PM, but like the Yankees' false alarm at 4:00, that never came to fruition. Play was never resumed.

The Yankees, on the other hand, did manage to get their game in. After the third longest rain delay in MLB history, the tarp was removed to make way for an extremely frustrating experience for the fans who did wait out the storm. There weren't many viable options. To their credit, the Yankees did try to make it up to their fans who stuck it out by clearing the upper deck and allowing fans to sit in the Main and Field Levels. Even better, the Yanks are accepting any tickets from last night, regardless if they were used to get in the Stadium, in exchange for another non-premium game any time this year or next.

The Yankees had it much easier than the USGA, though. The staff couldn't just tarp the greens at Bethpage, and they weren't able to build a perfect drainage system directly underneath the entire course just last year. The USGA could have tried to give away free tickets to future Opens, but the Tournament won't be returning to the area until at least 2016, if not longer. In addition, they would be losing a potential 1/4 of the gate revenue for that year, as opposed to the Yanks giving up 1/81. Furthermore, tickets to golf events, the U.S. Open included, are sold by the day, not the round, so they couldn't give away free passes for the later days without dealing with serious over-crowding issues.

After fielding what must have been an incredible influx of complaints, the USGA just announced that they would be accepting tickets from Thursday's washout to the likely Monday session. Unfortunatley for those who purchased tickets for Sunday, thinking it would be the deciding round get indirectly screwed by the weather also. The upside is there should be a healthy supply of available tickets on the secondary market. So if you can get Monday off from work, it might be the only chance you'll have to see an affordbale U.S. Open for a reasonable price, on a course that is at less than full capacity.

Juuuuuust Kidding!

A well oiled machine, that Yankee PR department!

The good news: More Mike Francesa!!!!

Probability of a Live Chat declining by the moment.

This sucks.

4:00 First Pitch (Live Chat Reminder)

That's what the tell me on Twitter, anyway.

Come by around that time for some good old fashioned newfangled live chattery.

Game 66: Crying, Waiting, Hoping

Crying, crying,
Tears keep a-falling,
All night long.
Waiting, waiting,
It seems so useless,
I know its wrong,
To keep on...

...crying, crying,
Waiting, waiting,
Hoping, hoping...

While the weather looks pretty dismal at the moment, the end does appear to be in sight. All indications are that the Yanks are going to try to get this one in. If/When the game goes off, provided that it's still during work hours, we will host a live chat to keep you entertained and kill your productivity at your job.

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A rain delay has to be particularly difficult on a starting pitcher. They spend their professional lives knowing exactly when their next outing is going to take place, down to a matter of minutes. They prepare and work out and sleep and eat in accordance to when they will be taking the mound. They can focus and prepare for when they take the ball and all eyes turn to them. It's a gradual and predictable build up. But not today. Joba Chamberlain and Craig Stammen have to amble about the clubhouse, trying to stay loose, or alert, or ready, knowing that the call could come at any time.

This happened to Joba once already this season and the results weren't especially encouraging. On May 26th in Texas, the game was delayed almost two and a half hours by rain. If you'll recall, this was the outing that Joba was pulled after 4 innings, 4 walks, 4 hits, 84 pitches and 3 runs. His last start against the Mets wasn't a whole lot better (4IP, 2ER, 100 pitches). Since his 8 strong innings in Cleveland he's gone progressively fewer innings (8, 6, 4), while his pitch count has remained about the same (106, 100, 100). The free swinging Nats should help him buck that trend.

Starting for the Nats will be Craig Stammen (not "Stamen", easy there, flower children). As was the case with the other two pitchers Manny Acta has trotted out this year, the Yankees have not faced Stammen yet. He's a 25 year old rookie who has pitched a grand total of 27 1/3 innings in the major leagues and has yet to throw 100 pitches in an outing or see his ERA below 5. Let's test that theory again. He's lasted at least until the fifth inning in each of his starts, but (shockingly!) has yet to come away with one of the Nationals' 17 victories.

If they do get around to playing this thing, Jeter, Posada and Melky will all be out of the line up.

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Come back for the live chat when game time rolls around.

April All Over Again

After a rain delay of 12 minutes the gametime temperature sat at a rather chilly 55 degrees. The air was opaque with mist and a huge amount of seats sat empty. The atmosphere was eerily reminiscent of the game that Schiff and I went to on April 21st. Andy Pettitte was the starter that night as well, but the main difference was that the lefty lasted seven innings, gave up two runs and the Yankees came away with the win. Not tonight.

Tonight was another frustrating outing with RISP (1-6) although it wasn't as bad as the series finale in Cleveland (3-16), which they won. Pettitte got the Yankees in the hole right off the bat, allowing three runs in the first inning. Nelson Cruz hit a ball right back toward Pettitte that would have likely become a double play if it hadn't deflected off it Andy's leg. A DP would have ended the inning, but Ian Kinsler scored on the play and the Rangers worked across two more runs on a groundout and a single. The inning would have continued on longer if it weren't for Melky Cabrera's outfield assist, throwing out Marlon Byrd at third base from right field.

Pettitte did not look sharp at any point in the game, but the first was the only inning where the Rangers would do significant damage. Allowing 13 baserunners in 5 innings typically leads to more than four runs, but Pettitte has always found ways to sneak out of tight situations. The six strikeouts and the double play he induced certainly helped his cause. 

It looked as though his back problem was flaring up as replays showed him wincing as he labored towards first base in the fourth inning. He apparently got through whatever it was and came back out for the fifth, finished the frame and ended up throwing 104 pitches.

The Yankees brought home a run on a single by A-Rod, the only one they would plate in the first six innings. Despite throwing only 59 of his 98 pitches for strikes, Feldman mostly stumped the Bombers. He gave up three walks and five hits, the last of which being a homer to Jorge Posada before getting pulled in the 7th. Of the 14 outs Feldman got on balls in play, 11 were grounders. Although he's not a name brand guy, Feldman's ERA of 3.79 and 5-0 record in seven starts (four in Arlington) is nothing to sneeze at. 

The Yanks shot themselves in the foot plenty of times, however. A-Rod rapped into a double play with one out and the bases loaded in the third inning. After Johnny Damon advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw by Feldman, A-Rod struck out in the sixth with a man on third and only one out. He struck out again in the eighth with Nick Swisher on first, bringing the total number of runners he left on base to five. The bottom third of the line up, (Melky, Matsui and Gardner) reached base only twice in ten plate appearances and Jeter went 0-4 in the leadoff spot. When a four person stretch in the order has a night that bad, it makes it tough to score runs without hitting long balls. 

On the bright side, Nick Swisher filled in admirably for Mark Teixeira, going 2-3 with a walk. Brett Tomko also pitched terrifically in relief of Pettitte, throwing three shutout innings and keeping the game well within reach. David Robertson added his own scoreless frame in the ninth. 

One difference between this and the games the Yankees were losing in April was the level of frustration. April started off bad, and never really got better. There was a sense of angst building, but the Yanks' success as of late makes routine losses like this one much easier to tolerate. The opposing pitcher had a good night and they didn't manage to score enough runs. It happens. Fortunately, the matinee on the schedule today means the loss won't linger too long, either.

That Was Kind Of Painful

When Kevin Millwood threw out the first pitch of last night's game, it was already 10:30 EDT and there was still a faint drizzle coating the field. Ken Singleton first estimated that the delay would only last about an hour when the game was scheduled to start and a thunderstorm cell was moving through the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but as I periodically refreshed the radar, it seemed to have stalled out right over the park. It didn't start raining for more than an hour, but when it did, chunks of hail and bolts of lightning caused the Rangers to ask fans to clear the upper decks. The final length of the delay: 2:24.

Derek Jeter busted a single to left-center to start the game, but the Yanks failed to get anything going in the first. The bottom half of the inning was significantly more eventful, and not in a good way for the road team. 

Ian Kinsler, the first Ranger to come to the plate, took a 2-2 pitch out to deep center field. Melky Cabrera tracked it, came close to making a nice catch, but couldn't slow down and face planted into the wall. 

He came away clutching his shoulder as his right arm hung limp. He still managed to throw the ball back towards the infield with his left hand, but Kinsler had already reached third with a stand-up, lead-off triple. It seems as though the Yankees simply can't make it through a series in the state of Texas without suffering an injury. Brett Gardner came in as a replacement, and the latest word on Cabrera is that he had sprained his shoulder and is day to day.

With Kinsler standing on third, Michael Young came to the plate and pulled one to A-Rod, who was standing about 10 feet from thrid base. Alex looked at Kinsler, who stutter-stepped over towards home, and instead of throwing to first, A-Rod made a dash and narrowly tagged out Kinsler at third. 

The aggressive, heads up play gave Joba some breathing room, but it was short lived.

There were two outs and a man of first after Chamberlain retired Michael Young on a force out to second base and it looked like Joba was poised to escape the inning unscathed. But Nelson Cruz laced a double to left, then David Murphy worked a walk. With the bases loaded, Marlon Byrd knocked a base hit and the Rangers grabbed the lead 2-0. 

In the second, Brett Gardner hit a one out single and proceed to steal second and third with Hideki Matsui at the plate. Matsui stuck out, Swish worked a walk and Gardner was stranded after Frankie Cervelli grounded out to second. 

The Rangers plated another run in the bottom of the 4th via a Chris Davis homer, his tenth of the year. True to his nature, Davis also struck out twice last night, bringing his league-leading tally to 66 in only 162 plate appearances. Joba made it through the fourth, but that was where his night would end. He had only thrown 84 pitches, but the combination of having to wait out the rain delay and his obvious ineffectiveness (4H, 4BB) cut his night short.

Mark Teixeira finally put the Yankees on the board with a deep blast in the the right field upper deck in the bottom of the fifth that the announcers somehow estimated at only 391ft. I demand a recount. It was his 14th of the year putting him in second place in the AL. 

Trailing 3-1 entering the 6th inning, Brett Gardner led off with a single and promptly swiped second, Gardner's third and Yankees fifth base nabbed from the battery of Millwood and Saltalamacchia last night. 

Matsui capitalized on this robbery and drove Gardner home with a double. Godzilla scored two batters later on a Cervelli single. 

Appearing for the second night in a row, Alfredo Aceves came on in relief of Chamberlain. He worked a scoreless fifth inning, but coughed up the lead in the sixth. AA allowed a single and a double to begin the 7th and was replaced by Phil Coke, who allowed both inherited runners to score. Coke served up Chris Davis' 11th homer of the year in the 8th before David Robertson pitched a scoreless frame in his first outing since being recalled from Scranton. Final score: Yanks 3, Rangers 7.

Between the rain delay, the injury to Melky and Joba's struggles, this was a particularly excruciating contest to sit through. Play was sloppy and the contest didn't wrap up until 1:39AM, although the outcome felt like it was decided when Coke couldn't clean up for Aceves about a half hour earlier. You win some, you lose some, and some kind of suck. I think we know which two apply to this one.